Next Practice in Communities for Learning - Support staff

Identifying, developing and maximising the skills of those in support roles to enhance student learning 

The number of support staff in UK schools more than doubled in the seven years between 1997 and 2004. The professional workforce in schools, which can include Teaching Assistants, Higher Level Teaching Assistants, as well as Learning Support Assistants and Learning Mentors, looks very different as a result. An immediate challenge for teachers is the way they work with support staff to build on remodelling work to further enhance pupils' learning across schools and community in innovative, aligned and sustainable ways.

Confidence is growing all the time about how the pedagogic and pastoral aspects of schooling become the shared responsibility of the wider school workforce, and how teaching and learning can at the same time be developed and enhanced. In UK schools support staff are playing an increasing pedagogic role under the formal guidance of teachers and senior managers. There are paraprofessionals leading on routine tasks, classroom managers organising lessons and projects, and leading teams of paraprofessionals. Advanced teachers are designing materials and leading on high value, high risk activities.

This strand of the project looks in detail at the specific nature of new support roles in the context of the school and the wider community. It focuses on the ways in which support staff provide pastoral care, co-ordinate learning, provide learning choices, interact with students and parents, and contribute to cultures of teaching and learning. By supporting innovative development within the remit of support staff, the project investigates the evolving role of the 21st century teacher, and how an extended workforce focus on processes of teaching and learning can improve standards as well as creativity within schools and communities.

Field trial sites

Eastfeast
The Halesowen Partnership
Wakefield

Horizon scanning

This report looks at how teachers are working with school-based support and other staff to further enhance pupils' learning across schools and communities. It considers recent DCSF research into the range of support staff currently employed in schools, and looks at innovative examples of staff deployment to enhance teaching and learning. It profiles current programmes in this area including the deployment of Higher Level Teaching Assistants, Learning Mentors and Learning Support Assistants.

Support staff

top